Were the Boomtown Rats ever banned in Ireland?

Brendan Burgess

Brendan Burgess

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On Steve Harley's Radio 2 programme last night, he said

...for them to be banned from the live concert stage in Ireland, their home country, even then, seems little more than ridiculous. Today, if we presume the bar has been lifted, it would seem little more than silly. ...but it might have been a publicity stunt by the Irish government or by the Rats themselves...
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I had never heard of them being banned? Presumably some local authority might have banned them from the town hall, but no government ever would have banned them. They played regularly on RTE radio and TV.
 
From the Irish Indo Sat Jan 18th 03

[FONT=Verdana, Arial] "I had no place in a future that this past was determining. I wanted to be part of another world, a world where everything was always about the present. I didn't want to be part of that country where to be ambitious was to be mocked at."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial] He wanted to get out, to be "anywhere but here" as he felt claustrophobic in the "stale air created by the church state" which bred corruption.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial] He also spoke about the "hopelessness of Dublin" at the time.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial] When his band, the Boomtown Rats, talked about this, they were vilified and were banned from playing in "our own country", he said.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial] "My Irishness was an impediment to me, to be honest with you, because it came with an entire baggage of assumptions that I didn't hold to be true.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial] "I didn't view this past as being a big part of my culture, this imposed culture that I had to be part of. I felt I had to be almost Stalinistic and had to deny my Irish past in order to become part of this other world."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, Arial] Even when he moved to England, he suffered because of his Irishness as the band was "kept out of the club" and everything they did was seen in an Irish context.[/FONT]
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If they weren't banned, they should be banned now, or better still, prosecuted for crimes against music!! Listening to Bob Geldof singing or pontificating could be used as some form of punishment for wrongdoers.
 
I remember they were to play a concert in Leopardstown racecourse (which would have been cool as it was up the road from me) but 'at the last' minute the concert was cancelled. Word was that it had been banned, but for all the detail I have it may as well have been refused permission from the local authority or there may have been other concerns . . .

z
 
zag said:
I remember they were to play a concert in Leopardstown racecourse (which would have been cool as it was up the road from me) but 'at the last' minute the concert was cancelled. Word was that it had been banned, but for all the detail I have it may as well have been refused permission from the local authority or there may have been other concerns . .
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That's usually a codeword for lack of ticket sales these days. Perhaps it was the same then?
 
At that time some Saturday night gigs in Belfield (UCD) were stopped at short notice because of fears of riotous behaviour. The Boomtown Rats might well have been one of these, along with the notorious Black Catholics.
 
Didn't they play at Leixlip Castle instead of Leopardstown racecourse? I have memories of this incident being covered on Reeling in the Years.
 
RainyDay said:
Didn't they play at Leixlip Castle instead of Leopardstown racecourse? I have memories of this incident being covered on Reeling in the Years.
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Yep, I was there :D . The concert was supposed to be at the Leopardstown Dome originally but, as an earlier poster said, was called off for (supposedly) planning reasons, or whatever. Can't remember the exact details but Geldof blamed the Blackrock College powers-that-be for using their influence to block the concert, have no clue if there was any truth in it. Desmond Guinness, owner of Leixlip Castle, stepped in and offered his back garden as a venue. It definitely wasn't a ticket sales issue, at the time the Rats were huge, there were 20,000+ at Leixlip.
 
Bob Geldof can sing and pontificate all he wants ..Its a small price to pay for the brilliant work he has done over the years for raising the profile of developing countries.....He's an absolute legend...
 
Yes, that Boomtown rats concert was banned, the word at the time was fear of rioting as far as I remember. The band went on the Late Late and kicked up a big fuss. Gaybo always seemed to have a lot of time for Geldof, and why wouldn't he - the singer was one of the most articulate media figures of the day, even back then.

I don't think "Banana Republic" was banned from the the national airwaves. Such an action would have been fruitless anyway as the country was awash with pirate radio stations at the time and I remember it got a lot of airplay.
 
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